I lucked out in that my parents knew that I was thinking of getting one of the dual core CPU's from AMD so they got me one for Christmas and that was all i needed. I have the X2 4800 and so far I like what I see. It does run much cooler then my Athlon 64 3500 and seems twice as fast. I don't put much stock in benchmarks but I have seen a marked improvement especially when I'm using Nero and Photoshop CS. As for the current crop of games they run very well but once those designed to take advantage of the technology should be a major improvement. And once Vista has been out for a while we'll really find out just how well these new chips are.
Will you be moving to a dual-core processor soon?
Yes (Why and which one?)
No (What's holding you back?)
Maybe (Why or why not?)
I already have (Which one?)
I don't know what you are talking about

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic